


Starfall

by illyrian_bitch_queen



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Starfall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 01:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9360365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illyrian_bitch_queen/pseuds/illyrian_bitch_queen
Summary: Starfall from Rhysand's point of view after he and Feyre leave the balcony to dance.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the tumblr user @embaileyart's headcannon and begins after Feyre asks Rhys to dance with her on Starfall.

I had never seen her happy before.

Perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it felt as though this was the first time I had ever seen an honest happiness from her.

The first time I’d ever seen her smile in a way that wasn’t purposefully saccharine or sarcastic was when she had met Tarquin. The memory still made my jaw clench, hands fisting at the thought of another male making my mate happy when I had failed to.

I relaxed when I glimpsed her form shifting through the crowd, going up on her bare toes to look for someone. Her eyes locked onto mine and she tipped her head to the side in confusion. We hadn’t parted for more than a couple seconds since I’d brought her down from the balcony when she asked to dance with me.

I smiled at her and felt a small thrill at her new response to beam back at me. I saw Mor come up to her side, pulling her away a bit and bringing her out of my line of sight. My smile didn’t fade as I turned, setting the cup I’d been holding back down on the short wall beside me. Cassian, who had been standing by my side, smirked at me.

“What exactly happened when you two disappeared, Rhys?”

I twisted to look at him, frowning slightly. “What do you–” I cut myself off as he raised his eyebrows pointedly, coughing shortly.

“Not that,” I said quickly. He looked put-out and I chuckled under my breath. “We just talked. We, well, sorted some things out.” I couldn’t help but smile as I remembered the way her freckles had seemed to glow, her finger tracing over my skin as she painted the star on my palm. The piece of her artwork had, unfortunately, come off on her dress or hand at some point while we danced. I wished I could have saved it. The first thing she had painted since she’d been locked up Under the Mountain.

When I remembered Cassian standing by my side and glanced over, he was smiling at me. “Damn, that must have been some talk. Neither of you two have stopped grinning.”

I ducked my head ever so slightly, knowing just how much Cassian would torment me later if he saw the goofy smile I could feel slipping onto my lips. I was saved from any present or future taunting by Feyre as she slid up to my side without warning, pressing her side against mine as though it was something she did every day. I felt her small hand rest up between my shoulder blades and cursed inwardly when I realized that, had my wings been out, her hand would have just slid over the sensitive membrane.

Cassian shot me a knowing look before slipping into the crowd with a grin.

I looked down slightly at Feyre, seeing her cock her head at me. “I was wondering where you’d disappeared to,” she said, a little breathlessly. “Mor said that you probably found one of the boys.”

I couldn’t help but grin down at her, seeing the exhilarated flush to her cheeks, the way her hair had come unpinned, her feet bare on the cobblestones below us. “What?” she asked, a small smile turning her lips up. I stared longer, unable to tear my eyes away from her when she was so utterly perfect in this moment.

She was so purely happy right now. Things were so right. My mate was with me, safe and happy with my family and my people.

“What is it?” she asked again, raising her eyebrows as she brought a slender hand up to her face. “Did I get hit with another spirit?” There was a bit of teasing in her eyes now.

_I love you_ , I almost said. _You’re my mate and I love you_.

I wanted nothing more than to say the words. I wanted her to know everything that I felt and knew. “You’re beautiful,” I said instead, filtering my thoughts from my words yet again.

I couldn’t twist this night into being about me or what I wanted, not when Feyre was smiling at me, flushing and ducking her head, but smiling regardless. She reached across me and grabbed one of my hands in her free one.

“Am I beautiful enough for you to come back and dance with?” she teased, tugging playfully on my fingers. My cheeks ached from smiling for so long, but I still allowed my lips to spread wider as she pulled me back into the crowd.

The fae now surrounding us smiled and greeted both Feyre and I happily. Feyre’s bright, free smile was bringing out the happiness in everyone around us. Some of the other dancers stared at her, dumbfounded. I knew that so many people were seeing who she was inside for the first time, seeing past her usually serious, dark demeanor, and witnessing the glorious creature she truly was.

I couldn’t help an exhilarated laugh as her hands wound around my neck, her eyes glittering in a way that I could never tire of. _I love you_ , I thought again. _My mate, my love._

For hours, I forgot about the restrictions I’d been placing on Feyre and I, forgot about Tamlin and Hybern, forgot about the blood rubies sitting in a dark corner of my desk. All I thought about was Feyre, her eyes sparkling like the spirits flying overhead, her dress moving around her freely as she danced without inhibitions, catching the light of Starfall and the lights of our city.

It was hours later that the music had started to slow. Feyre and I had been switching dance partners as the night went on, but always found our way back to each other. Now, she stayed only in my arms, her hands wrapped behind my neck, one hand toying with my hair as the other skimmed gently along my skin. My hands were gripping her hips gently as she leaned much of her weight against me, her head against my chest and her eyes shut, lips turned up contentedly. She was exhausted, I knew, but I couldn’t bring myself to suggest that we go home. Not when that would surely mean we had to separate once there.

So I let her rest against me, her bare feet still moving slowly in time with the music. I couldn’t help but press a kiss to the top of her head, the urge to kiss her so strong that I couldn’t stop myself. She turned her face up to me in response, a sweet smile gracing her lips.

_I love you._

I closed my eyes, savoring the way she was looking at me, the way her body fit perfectly against mine. Everything was so perfect now. The last thing I wanted was to force her into returning my feelings by telling her everything I knew. Things were beautiful now. There was no reason any of it had to change.

So I smiled and opened my eyes again, meeting her storm-cloud gray ones. She stood up on her toes suddenly, turning her face to the side and pressing herself more firmly against me, her elbows hooking over my shoulders as she embraced me more tightly. Her chin rested on my shoulder, her cheek soft against mine.

I shifted my hands to press my palms against her back, one sliding up to rest between her shoulder blades. I could still feel her bones faintly under her skin and the thin fabric of her dress, but she had become so much healthier than she’d been when she first came here. Her shoulder blades no longer jutted out into my hands when I ran my fingers over them.

She sighed softly, stirring the hair by my ear. I closed my eyes at the feeling of her breath on my neck. Without thinking, I turned my face so that it was burrowed slightly into her shimmering golden hair, falling loose around her shoulders. I breathed in deeply, locking her scent and this moment into my memory.

_I love you._

We danced like that for several songs, not a centimeter of space between us. After a while, Mor approached us with Cassian and Azriel trailing a couple steps behind her. Her eyes twinkled as she saw how Feyre and I were wrapped around each other.

My mate, feeling me shift ever so slightly away from her, picked her head up and followed my gaze over her shoulder to smile in greeting at my cousin. To my relief, she didn’t try to put distance between us at the sight of our friends. Cassian was grinning smugly at me as Feyre focused on Mor’s approach, and I just smiled back at him, too content to have Feyre in my arms to be concerned about Cassian’s smartass reactions. Even Azriel smiled slightly at the two of us when he took his eyes away from Mor for long enough to notice our proximity.

Mor clasped a hand on Feyre’s shoulder. “Are you two going to stay here a little longer?” she asked, looking to the sky that was just beginning to show hints of the dawn that would be approaching soon. Before I could try and gauge where Feyre stood on staying longer, she was nodding at my cousin. She glanced at me quickly after, as if to make sure that I had the same plans. I just tightened my hands on her back in response, watching her face as she turned to listen to Mor.  “Alright. We’re going to go get some sleep like sane people. You two are going to be positively exhausted tomorrow.”

Feyre just laughed lightly. “We’ll be exhausted regardless,” she said playfully. “Why not make the most of it?”

I saw even Cassian’s smirk soften into a smile. She sounded so much like one of us in this moment that I felt my heart speed up in my chest. Mor met my eyes knowingly and huffed a quiet chuckle. “I’ll see you two tomorrow then,” she said kindly, clapping Feyre on the shoulder as a goodbye.

Azriel nodded to the two of us as he passed, and Cassian nudged his shoulder into my back teasingly. Feyre met my eyes once they’d faded into the crowd, her face flushed happily.

_I love you._

I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to show her how much I loved her, even if I couldn’t say the words. Just as I thought I might have enough courage gathered to really do it, to really put my lips to hers, she broke our eye contact, resting her forehead against my chest, right over my heart. _It’s yours. My heart, my soul, my body, everything._

After a moment, she shifted so that her cheek pressed against me again, and I could tell that she was listening to the steady beating of my heart, the pace increasing with every moment her hands stayed pressed against my skin.

_It’s beating only for you._

The sky was beginning to show the approaching dawn when I noticed her feet dragging more than they had been before. I looked down at her bare feet, wondering how she could have had the strength to stand on the cobblestones without shoes for most of the night. She sighed, looking up at me, her eyes clearly tired, but still lively and joyous.

I smiled, tipping my head towards the sky. The spirits had stopped passing by a while ago, and the crowd had thinned out a bit. The only ones left were the ones who wished to see the sun rise after Starfall.

She looked up, seeing the colors streaking across the sky like they’d been painted by the Mother herself for this night.

Feyre looked back at me, her expression awed. Her gaze flickered between the approaching dawn and me for a while before she settled on me. I felt her gaze on me like fire, causing my cheeks to flush and my lips to turn up at her scrutiny.

She stumbled a bit as she took a step and placed her foot on a rougher spot of cobblestones just outside of the House of Wind. She wrinkled her nose, glancing down at her feet and sighing. “My feet ache,” she said softly, the only complaint all night. She had truly been a wonder, too lost in her happiness to be concerned about anything that could be wrong.

“Well, you seem to have lost your shoes somewhere along the way,” I chuckled. She smiled.

“They made it hard to move around like I wanted to,” she said with a simple shrug. I laughed, moving my hands from her back to her waist. Before she could protest,I had crouched down and put an arm under her knees, lifting her off of her feet and into my arms.

She yelped in surprise, and we received a few startled looks and smiles. I laughed as Feyre’s hands tightened around my neck. Her bare feet dangled as she looked up at me, her hair falling back as her startled eyes locked onto mine. “Is that better?” I asked playfully, trying not to let my thoughts linger on the way her legs curled over my arm, only the thin fabric of her dress and the delicate beading keeping my skin from hers.

She smiled now, although a hand loosened from my neck to slap my chest gently. “You could have warned me,” she said, her eyes twinkling. I laughed, and saw her shift to wrap an arm around behind my back, the side of her face resting against my shoulder while her other hand came up to lie against my opposite shoulder. I sighed, more content now than I’d ever been.

_My mate, my heart and soul._

I met her eyes just before she turned to face the sky again, and I could have sworn that I’d seen something in them that matched what I was feeling. Maybe I could tell her about the mating bond without destroying what we had. Maybe she already felt the way I did. Maybe I was a fool to keep hiding it when it may not change anything at all between us, except to pull us closer.

But that, I decided as I watched her awe at the beauty of the sun reaching up above the horizon, was a decision for another time.

It was hours later that I still stood with her in my arms, her weight so slight that the pleasure of keeping her from standing on aching feet–and just being this close to her–far outweighed any possible discomfort from holding her for so long.

When I saw that her eyes were closing of their own accord, despite her efforts to keep them open, I smiled at her and suggested that we head home. She nodded drowsily, her hand that had been draped over my shoulder now curling around the side of my neck as I released the glamour on my wings, careful to avoid the small hand she’d placed on my lower back as they unfurled behind me. There were only a few other people on the streets, couples like Feyre and I, and they bid us goodbye as I rose up in the air, feyre smiling in delight at the wind on her face.

Who knew that she would have grown to enjoy it, considering her initial reaction?

She still curled in closer to my body as we made our way through the dawn sky towards the townhouse, savoring every moment of her in my arms.

When I reached the roof of our home, I still didn’t release her. I held her tightly as she blinked up at me until I reached her door, my footsteps slowing more and more the closer I got to having to put her down and leave her for her to get some rest.

I slowly lowered her to her feet, holding her against me until she managed to get her balance once again, smiling sheepishly up at me. I gave her one last smile in return before impulsively pressing a kiss to her brow, the feeling of her skin under my lips making my heart race more than any intimate touch from another woman ever had.

I turned quickly after bidding her goodnight–although, I cursed myself later for my blunder considering night had already come and gone–and retreated to my room before she could see how much that mere kiss on the forehead had affected me.

I couldn’t sleep for hours after I had gotten into bed. I couldn’t force my mind to empty when it was so full of Feyre. Her laughter, her smiles, handed out so freely tonight. She had been so carefree, so happy and so lovely.

I couldn’t remember how I had ever managed to live without her. How had my heart beat when it wasn’t beating for her? How had I ever smiled when she wasn’t there to smile back? How had I ever endured the shadows when she wasn’t there to keep me company in them?

My mate. My love. My soul. My missing piece. I knew, without a doubt, that however I had endured my life before her, I could  never again do it now that I knew what it was like to have her light with me.

She had saved me when I didn’t even know I needed rescuing. For that, I would protect her and love her forever. I would never let harm come to her, never let her feel alone or undervalued. I would let her choose her life, and I would stand by her while she did.

I would love her until the day I died, and she deserved no less. 

 


End file.
